For more than five minutes last February, Morris Knolls’ Luke Shivas was having his way with Hackettstown’s Elioth Guarquila.

Shivas was dominant, up big and seemingly headed for the Region 2 consolation semifinals.

Atlantic City was coming into focus … or so it seemed.

That final minute of the Shivas-Guarquila match? 

Don’t ask. 

That’s where Shivas’ nightmare began.

He was up 14-0 – but then he got careless, was headlocked and pinned in 5:56.

Just like that, his season was over – and so was any dream of wrestling at Boardwalk Hall.

The regions are this coming weekend and Shivas is back.

He is one of the top wrestlers in his 165-pound weight class at Region 2 at Mount Olive Friday night and all day Saturday.

“My goal right now,” Shivas said, “is to get back to where I was last year.”

Shivas is well on his way.

He continued his terrific season at District 8 in Montville last weekend. He dominated his weight class by pinning Parsippany Hills’ Jarel Hernandez in 2:25, his third pin of the day.

Now, it’s on to Mount Olive.

Shivas earned a first-round bye and is one of the best kids in his weight class. He drew Clifton’s Joseph Geleta in the quarterfinals (both are district champions and thereby earned a bye). Wayne Valley’s Alexander Perez is the other top contender at the weight, and he will face Leonia’s Elad Fronimos in the first round. All four wrestlers are in the top of the bracket.

Alas, Shivas doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself. He knows that all too well now. Last year’s shocking loss has been in the back of his mind ever since.

“We are focusing on one match at a time and wrestling smart,” Golden Eagles coach Anthony Vasile said. “He knows anything can happen in the region tournament after last year and is determined to make things right this year.” 

Shivas has been brilliant from Day One this year. He won the Morris Knolls and Parsippany Hills tournaments around Christmas time and won his weight at the Morris County Tournament.

Shivas is now 33-2, with his only two losses to St. Benedict’s Zahier Chiles and P-Burg’s Gavin Hawk.

“Losing the way he did last year in regions has definitely been his motivation for this year,” Vasile said. “He’s been working extremely hard in the room and he continues to get better every time he steps on the mat.” 

Shivas has only been to Boardwalk Hall as a spectator. Last year, he went down to watch Knolls teammate Gavin Gomes wrestle in AC.

On occasion, Gomes returns to the Knolls wrestling room to work out with Shivas.

“He’s a great drilling partner and he tells me what I need to do,” Shivas said.

His confidence was booming after the district and now he is ready to make some noise at the regions.

And he knows how to close out a match now.

“I’m confident,” he said. “Now I’m back and feeling better.”

Here and there

1. One of the biggest surprises out of District 8 was Morris Hills’ Alexander Casarrubias (150), who not only beat two kids who beat him during the regular season but majored them both.

That, my friends, doesn’t happen too often. Were it not for Parsippany Hills’ James McGinty winning his fourth district title at District 8, Casarrubias would have been Outstanding Wrestler worthy.

Casarrubias, the fourth seed, beat Montville’s top-seeded Joe Marino in the district semifinals, 8-0, and then beat Boonton’s No. 2 seed Phoenix LaCorte in the finals in the wildest bout of the finals, 19-11. Casarrubias was majored by Marino in a dual, 12-2, and lost to LaCorte in the MCT first round, 8-4.

Since the MCT, Casarrubias has taken off, going 11-1 during that stretch,

Casarrubias and LaCorte seemingly scrambled during their entire six minutes at the districts. There was one scramble early on, followed by another, and another.

LaCorte struck first with a takedown – only to have Casarrubias respond with a reversal and four back points. In the second period, Casarrubias reversed LaCorte to his back again but surrendered an escape and a takedown to lead going into the third period, 12-7.

Casarrubias had two takedowns in the third to pull away.

“I like the wild matches,” he said later. “You’ve got to push it to the limit. You need to be uncomfortable sometimes in order to be comfortable. All of the work I put in in the room paid off. That’s what it takes. Effort and confidence. Coach (Brian Bollette) always says, ‘Height, hips, and head will always keep you in the match.’”

A district championship was far from Casarrubias’ mind back in December. But he is a red-hot wrestler and one to watch right now.

2. Down through the years, Par Hills has had some terrific wrestlers like brothers Paul and Evan Gallipeau, John Hesse, Steve Arienta, Chris Media and Tom Petrosino (a two-time state placewinner), among others.

None of them could pull off what James McGinty did at District 8.

McGinty (120) beat Immaculata’s Ryan Goldstein in the finals, 10-3, and became the school’s first four-time district champion.

McGinty earned Outstanding Wrestler after having won one of the district’s deepest weights, one that also included Boonton’s Isa Kupa (30-2) and Montville’s Michael Frank (28-7).

“It’s pretty nice being able to do that,” McGinty said about winning his fourth district. 

McGinty and Goldstein were scoreless after one period before McGinty turned Goldstein and got backs with an armbar. Goldstein had chosen bottom in hopes of getting out and scoring first but the decision backfired.

McGinty is all about the Vikings and school spirit, which is refreshing to see. He wants to cash in on his efforts and advance to Atlantic City and get on the podium for himself, of course, but he also wants to bring credit to Par Hills wrestling.

“I hope in the future that kids stay in the program and keep the legacy of Par Hills wrestling alive,” he said. 

Next stop, Region 2. McGinty has a great opportunity to advance to Boardwalk Hall.

Others in the weight include his cousin and favorite Johnathan McGinty of St. Joe’s Montvale, Mount Olive’s Anthony Piemonte, Daniel Visha of Roxbury and Charlie Piccione of Warren Hills. It is one of the deepest weight classes of the entire region.

McGinty will face Visha in the quarterfinals. Piemonte, down from 126, is the No. 2 seed and at the bottom of the bracket.  

Last year, McGinty lost in the Region 2 semifinals to Mount Olive’s eventual state champion Tyeler Hagensen by technical fall, 17-1 (3:33). McGinty majored P-Burg’s Massimo Gonzalez in the wrestleback semifinals – qualifying him for Atlantic City – but was pinned in the region consolation for third by St. Thomas Aquinas’ Ben DiCocco in 5:32.

McGinty lost twice in Atlantic City.

“Heading into the Regions our game plan is always the same for James: one match at a time,” Par Hills coach Chris Wells said. “He needs to focus on staying in the match he is in and then moving forward after it is done.  No one should be overlooked at this point moving forward, and we have to be on our game as everyone knows who James is, which is great because he’s made a name for himself these past few years, but also a curse because everyone has scouted him.  

“But that doesn’t change for us, we will go to what we feel confident in and get the match to our strengths and wrestle the way we want to wrestle.  

“It is a tough region with a former State finalist, a tough kid from Mt. Olive, who competed with top level kids at 126 and is now down at 120. And there are some really strong competitors that we’ve already seen this season.  It is not going to be an easy task, but I truly believe that James will finish out this week strong and continue his season and high school career one last time down in AC with a very strong chance of winding up on the podium.

“We have been blessed to have James these last few years and he will go down in the history books at Parsippany Hills.  James will finish his career with many records and accomplishments for the Vikings.”

Already, McGinty is the all-time winningest wrestler in Par Hills history (135 wins) as well as a four-time MCT finalist and three-time state qualifier.  

3. Mendham’s team season is complete and the Minutemen staged one of the biggest turnarounds in recent Morris County history this year.

Check out some of the highlights:

• The Minutemen were a dreary 3-24 last year. This year, Coach Steve Baig’s team finished 14-6 and qualified for sectionals, losing to South Plainfield in the first round of North 2, Group III.
• The team finished third at District 9 behind Delbarton and Bloomfield. Last year at District 12, Mendham was a lowly seventh.
• Mendham beat seven schools who beat the Minutemen last year, including Jefferson, Verona, Sparta, Roxbury, Demarest, Butler, and Madison.
• Baig’s team also exhibited vast improvement at the Morris County Tournament by finishing in eighth place this year after finishing tied for 15th last year.

In addition, Mendham sent just two wrestlers to Region 3 last year, but Baig will bring along five wrestlers Friday night after Aidan Reilly (106), Rafe Fonte (132), and Ralph Langone (215) placed second at District 9 and Owen Lieberwirth (157) and Paul LeBow (190) took third.

“This year has been a major improvement for our program and I am so happy for the individual success that occurred,” Baig said. “We had eight wrestlers place in the top four and we are taking five to the regions this year – much better than only taking two last season.”

4. West Morris came away with its second district title in school history (first since 2019) when it rolled to the District 12 crown at Nutley. West Morris rolled up 204 ½ points with Nutley (183 ½), Gov. Livingston (171) and Livingston (105) rounding out the top four.

Brody Neill (120), Jacob Harrison (132), Christopher Kowalik, and Tommy Borgia (285) were firsts, Mark Montoure (113), Deacon Frayne (175), and Michael Borgia (215) finished second, and Jonathan Cabarle (138) and Robert Fazzino (165) finished third. 

“The team wrestled really well overall,” coach Chris Marold said. “I was very impressed with both of our third-place finishers, Rob Fazzino and Nathan Carbarle.  They were both fourth seeds so they placed above their seed and Carbarle especially had three tough kids in his weight.  His consolation match might have been my favorite match of the tournament.”

In that one, Cabarle pinned Kearny’s Adam Ramadan in 5:30.

Harrison put in a lot of work in the offseason and it is paying off. He tecked Verona’s Jesse Wagner in the finals, 19-2.

“He is starting to get more confident and had a great tournament,” Marold said. “He put in a ton of work this past off-season and we’re happy to see him starting to peak at the right time of the year.”

Neill pinned GL’s Eduardo Ribeiro in the finals in 51 seconds.

“Brody always impresses me with the way he can lock in and wrestle his best when the lights are the brightest,” Marold said. “We’re looking forward to him hopefully wrestling (Hanover Park’s Nick Defrancescantonio) this weekend (in a possible region semifinal). I think that will be a fun one.”

Another fascinating final could be at heavyweight with Borgia getting a rematch against Delbarton’s top-seeded August Moser, who dealt Borgia his lone loss of the year.